The People Under the Stairs (1991)

Review/Film;
Mad and Bloodsucking Landlords

"The People Under the Stairs," which opened at theaters here yesterday, is an affirmative-action horror film by Wes Craven, the man who wrote and directed the first "Nightmare on Elm Street" in 1984.

Though the new movie has its share of blood and gore, it is mostly creepy and, considering the bizarre circumstances, surprisingly funny. A little boy nicknamed Fool (Brandon Adams) has greatness thrust upon him when he does battle with some blood-sucking (literally) white landlords. Fool, his dying mother and hooker-sister are about to be evicted from their black ghetto apartment.

The principal setting is the scary old house occupied by the mad real estate operators, played with thick relish by Everett McGill and Wendy Robie. They not only keep their teen-age daughter (A. J. Langer) in chains, but they also have a basement full of flesh-eating ghouls, one of whom has escaped and runs around in the spaces between the walls.

Mr. Craven's screenplay manages to evoke both "Treasure Island" and "The Night of the Living Dead," and plays like a stroll through an amusement park's haunted house. It is full of peculiar noises, floors and walls that suddenly give way, things that jump out of the dark and objects of unmentionable disgustingness that sneak up from behind.

Young Mr. Adams, who was featured in Michael Jackson's "Moonwalker" video, is a small but resourceful hero. Mr. McGill and Miss Robie are also good as the fiends. It's impossible not to like fiends who, having just dispatched someone in an especially nasty way, can't contain their natural high spirits. They dance.

"The People Under the Stairs," which has been rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian), has a lot of vulgar language and many simulated atrocities.